Ultrasound

Dear Baby-
Here are the results of your first photo shoot. Looking good already! Everything went extremely well at our first appointment and your heart is beating strongly at 170 BPM. Your Daddy and I are in love. Again.

Love,

Mom

Emotional

Dearest Baby,
Tomorrow I will be six weeks pregnant. When I was six weeks pregnant with your brother, we had our first ultrasound and glimpse at him. This time around, I won't be going to the doctor for another three weeks and I am not sure when we will "see" you for the first time. This part of pregnancy is full of worry and I want to see you. My baby. Growing inside me healthy and happy. I have been feeling pretty lousy and tired, so I know that everything is going along how it should be, but I still want that reassurance that the doctors office brings. I have also been really emotional and have felt a roller coaster ride of feelings the past couple weeks. As a family unit, we have a lot of "things" going on with us right now and so I am sure my crazy hormones aren't helping keep us on an even keel.
Luckily, your brother and I are going home to Chicago for a nice long visit on Friday. I am sure the time will fly by and then I will be home for our next checkup. I can't wait to tell the Grandparents about your arrival. I can't wait to tell everyone, but we are waiting for a little while to spread the news. In the mean time, keep doing what your doing. Dig deep and make a nice cozy home for yourself!
I love you,
Mom

Baby B2

Dearest Baby-
It is the day after we found out that we are expecting you. Your Daddy, Owen (your big brother), and I are beyond thrilled to be expanding our family. When I was expecting your brother, I wrote a series of letters to him to record how much he was loved. I intend to do the same with you. You are loved. I know that this pregnancy is going to be different from the first and that is only natural. To be honest, I feel better prepared and less anxious for the pregnancy part. But parenting two children will be a whole different ballgame and another challenge in our lives. Let's hope your ole Mom and Dad are up for it!
Right, now I am feeling pretty good. We are all getting over a family "funk" that we caught during the holidays, so I am not sure if what I am feeling is you or just the tail end of a nasty cold. Today I went to the doctor to have a confirmation blood test and they told me your due is September 20, 2010. What a beautiful way to spend next fall! Your big brother will be almost two years old when you arrive. We hope and pray that you all will be close enough to grow up as best friends. I have already been dreaming of you and what you will become. We don't have any doctor appointments until next month and we aren't spreading the word of your arrival for a couple months. So we have you all to ourselves! In a few weeks, we are going to visit your Grandparents in Chicago so we will tell them face to face. They will be thrilled and will be almost as anxious for your arrival as we are. Your cousin Wilkin is due to be born this summer, so there will be a whole lotta baby going on! I promise to write soon, as I have time or updates to share with you. Sleep well, my baby. I love you.
Mom

Temporary Goodbye

I have been a terrible blogger of late. Unfortunately, our hearts are very heavy right now and we have some family issues that need to take top priority in our lives. Between my Father-In-Law's recent diagnosis of terminal cancer, the disappointment of trying & failing to conceive Baby B2, the holidays, and all of my other real life commitments, I hope you can understand that something has got to give. And the truth is, no matter how much I want to blog so I can share with everyone what's happening in our lives, I just can't. It's too difficult and heartbreaking to put on paper. The biggest lesson I am learning right now, is that each day is a blessing. We cannot take anything or anyone for granted. Please don't be worried about us, I know we have the strength to get through this rough patch as a family. I believe that the Lord doesn't give us more than we can handle and we will survive this test of faith. Until then, I wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

1 Year Stats

Quick recap of Owen's checkup:
Weight= 23 Pounds 10 Oz (6oth %)
Height=28.5 Inches (20th %)
Head= 47 Cm (70th%)
All is healthy and well. He did however, have 5 SHOTS and 2 Finger Pricks. It.was.awful. I mean, seriously sad and pitiful. I even cried. I have a lot to report about the weekend and the checkup, but it's going to have to wait until tomorrow. This mama's had a long day and the week has just begun. Night Night blogging friends!

Party Prep

Crap! Another day without a post. I guess I sorta set myself up for failure in this challenge by picking the busiest month of the year (for us) to try this out. Come to think of it, I think I set myself of failure a lot in my life in general. But that's a whole other post, I suppose!
Not much has been going on here except getting ready for Owen's first birthday party this weekend. I spent yesterday and will work all day today on getting the house cleaned. It's a lot of work since it has been neglected for a while now! My Dad, Ross, Amber, my Grandma, and my sister-in-law Kristi will all arrive at various times tomorrow. So I have tons to accomplish before noon on Friday. But I have my list and now I just have to dig deep to find the motivation to get going!
Not much else is going on here except that Owen is starting to move around more and we found him sitting up in the crib this morning! I wish we had time to snap a picture. More tomorrow once the cleaning is done and the guests have arrived....

A Year In Pictures

Ocotber 10, 2008: One Month:

Two Months:

Three Months:

Four Months:

Five Months:

Six Months:

Seven Months:

Eight Months:

Nine Month Checkup:

Ten Months:

Eleven Months:

One Year Later:

Weekend Update

Shoot, I already broke my promise to myself by not updating this weekend. I will just have to try harder this week. This weekend was really busy! Every time I thought about blogging something came up to distract me. The weekend started off right, with dinner at one of our favorite Mexican places with Missy & Wes. We haven't seen them in a while and it was good to catch up. Lately, I feel like I have been a little disconnected with some of our friends. Especially those without children. We used to be part of a group that went out every Friday night. I have so many memories of the fun times and beach trips. But truth be told, I wouldn't change anything about our lifestyle right now. Our growing family has only made life more fun and exciting. But we all need our friends (and sometimes the adult beverages that come with them) and we had a blast hanging out Friday night.

On Saturday morning, I walked in the Women's Only 5K for Breast Cancer. A group from church got together (thanks to Emily and Mel for organizing) and it was awesome! Of course, I only walked, but I still had a great time. This cause has a special place in my heart. Not only do I have boobs, but my Aunt Pat died from this disease. She was only 43. Every step I took reminded me of how much I miss her. It also reminded me of how far we have come (she died in 1997) and how much further we need to go to find a cure. Hopefully it will happen in my lifetime!

After the walk, I raced home to get ready for my nephews football game. They were playing at noon in Burlington. We quickly packed up everything needed and made it there a few seconds after kick off. Jacob (my nephew) is in the 6th grade and now his football games are a lot more competitive. The game was hot and sunny which did nothing to help my killer headache which started during the walk. I spent most of the afternoon fighting off nausea and laying down in the shade instead enjoying time with the fam. Once the game was over, the whole family went back to my brother-in-law and sister-in-law's house to celebrate my brother-in-law's birthday. We had a great lunch, watched football, the kids went swimming, and had birthday cake. It was a great day, but I was worn out afterwards. I think I went to sleep before Owen did that night!

On Sunday, we were up early again. This time, I had to be a church early to help collect for our upcoming Rummage Sale. We are collecting items every Sunday in October for the sale in November. I had shift duty this weekend since I already know we won't be at church the middle two Sundays in October. After church, I had a drop off all the collected items to a storage unit that we are using to house the items until the sale. Once that was done, I headed home to have some lunch and take a wee nap. When Owen woke up from his nap, we decided to do a test run of his Halloween Costume. I am entering him in a contest which ends the 8th, so I needed some good pictures of him. Enjoy!

Growing Up

Once again I am faced with the task of cleaning out Owen's closet to make room for the next size up. Since it feels like he grew overnight, I thought I would examine the concept of what, exactly, "they grow so fast" means? I'll admit to not having a freaking clue how fast Owen was going to grow. In the first six months, it's entirely possible to blow through three completely cute and teeny wardrobes that your friends and relations have spent hundreds on. Newborn, 0-3 months (Yes, this is different than newborn, even though there's a ZERO in it and ZERO would indicate newly born baby (aka NEWBORN), yes?) and 3-6 months. Owen was wearing 3-6 months clothes at 2 months. Babies literally grow so stinking fast for the first six months that they will be busting out of their PJs in the morning that were only sort of tight the night before. This truly happened to us.
People will also give you a boatload of 0-6 month clothes. Mostly because they are so cute and teeny and irresistible. Knowing what I know now, even now I cannot resist the wee pink ruffly onesie or onesies with cute slogans such as "Captain Adorable" at Target in size newborn to give to my friends. My mom friends probably roll their eyes when they open gifts from me, but I don't care. WEE PINK ONESIE! CAPTAIN ADORABLE! SQUEE! My advice, buy a couple things you love in the smaller range, but focus buying in the 6-12 months range. Owen fit into this size at 5 months and he'll wear some items beyond 12 months. For us, it's definitely been the most versatile size in the first year. He has a lot of clothes that I wish I had been given/bought in this size instead of 3-6. After all, they're only a baby for a year, after that they turn into toddlers. And that my friends, is right around the corner for us.

Challenge

Since I have been such a craptastic blogger of late, I have issued a challenge to myself. Blog every day for the month of October. I know it will be hard to stay motivated and I am pretty sure that ya'll will be sick of me come Halloween, but this might be just what I need to get myself back in the spirit of things. Besides, Fall is an exciting time of year and we have lots planned for this month. So even if there is absolutely nothing going on with the Beales, you're gonna hear about. I know you're on the edge of your seat, but try to contain yourselves people. Wish me luck!

9/11

I was in my cubicle at the Oakwood Building in Greensboro. I had just returned from visiting one of my best friends in New York City the previous afternoon. I didn't know how to feel then and I don't know how to feel now. Empty is all. In the lobby of our office building, I sat with a co-worker and wondered aloud...
How?
Why?
Pulling his eyes from the TV, he looked at me and said nothing. Airplanes screamed past the five story glass windows as planes were being grounded immediately and the terror was all around us. Did you hear they hit the State Department? I heard the White House. They're firebombing the Pentagon, my friend told me. There's smoke coming from the Old Executive Building. The towers fall. No. Here, it's on TV now. The Pentagon.
I wanted to go home, because home sounded safe, but home is only a place in my heart and safe is concept in my mind. Home is building now. Safe is memory. Maybe the world didn't change that day. Maybe we all realized that it's not the place we hoped. Eight years later, that's still the hardest lesson.

August Recap

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know, I know, I know. I suck. At blogging. Well not really the actual blogging part, but the updating and keeping current part. So, in the spirit of my great blogging friend Emily, I am going to recap August with a list of all things Beale:
1. Yard sale. It was a lot of hard work, but in the end it was worth it. The house is now relatively clutter free, organized, and we made some extra cash.
2. Sleep study. Jason did a sleep study to see if he has the apnea. And he does. Now we are waiting for the doctor to call back with the plan of action. My guess is that he will have to wear one of those Darth Vader masks. While they are rather unattractive, I hope that it helps both of us sleep better at night.
3. Church drama. I don't really want to go into detail, but let's just say it's NOT contributing to the sleeping well thing.
4. Lawn party. This year, I was the host of our church's 2nd annual lawn party. I think it went pretty well, I had lots of great help and followed the footsteps of my friend Ginny. It was a hot day, but we made the best of it and it seemed like everyone had a good time. There was food, drink, live music, games, a firetruck, and a health fair. The idea was for us to get to know our neighbors. Hopefully each year, more and more of them will come out to party with us.
5. School. School started this week and is probably going to kick my butt. I am taking anatomy and one other psych class (which starts in October). This class is going to be lots of memorization and major major study time. I hope I can buckle down and get things done. I have class two nights a week and lab once a week. In lab, we will be dissecting a cat, so I am not too thrilled about that. But if I am going to be a nurse, it's just something I will have to get over. I am sure I will be dealing with lots of gross things to come!
6. Pool. We have been swimming a lot this summer. We are lucky enough to have two different places to swim and it's been fabulous. Owen is totally a water baby and he loves it!
7. Yearbook. I was also in charge of putting together a small directory for a group at church. It's finally at the printers and will be ready next week. While the project itself has minimal work involved, it's a lot of follow up and tracking folks down. I was glad to get that off my plate.
7. Next up. We still have lots to look forward to this month and going into the Fall. Next week, Owen and I start taking classes at the Little Gym and we have two birthday parties next weekend (my favorite almost-two-year-old and my nephew). Good times. The weekend after next, my brother & Amber get married in San Diego! It's hard to believe that it's only two weeks away. I am sure the next couple weeks are going to fly by while we get prepared for our trip. Toward the end of September, we are going back to the beach and before I know it, it will be Owen's 1st birthday. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.......

Saturday

Yard Sale. 7 AM-Noon. Come buy our crap.

Still Alive

Still kickin. Still giving you the lame excuse that I'm busy. But in my defense, I really have been busy. As I am sure you know, we are having a yard sale. I decided it was a good excuse to clean out and organize my entire house. That's right folks. Every room and closet has been emptied, cleaned out, organized, and put back together again. It sucked to do, but the end result is so worth it. The whole carport is filled with stuff to sell or donate. All we have left to clean out is the shed and hopefully all the grunt work done by Monday. Then next week, I just need to focus on the marketing and move on to my next project, coordinating the 2nd annual Neighborhood Lawn Party for our church. Luckily, my good friend Ginny, organized it last year. So I am basically just filling in the blanks and delegating tasks for this year. The party is August 16th and school starts back up the next day! Also, I have another church project due at the end of August that I would really like to have completed before classes begin. Then my brother gets married over Labor Day weekend. So it looks like this little Mama is going to be mighty busy until the Fall. Speaking of Mamas, my son has learned to eat cereal puffs by himself. He's getting to be such a big boy. *Sigh* First, he's feeding himself and then he's off to college! Harvard...natch.

Cats Are Funny

Apparently, babies think that cats are absolutely hysterical. We noticed that Owen has been paying more attention to Wrigley the past few weeks. Now whenever the cats walk in front of him, the laughter ensues. Enjoy!

Controling The Clutter

Ever since I started being a stay-at-home Mommy, I have felt like our house is closing in on me and is not as clean as I would like it to be. I am sure this is brought on by the fact that I am now spending all (if not most) of my time at home and have become acutely aware of how small our living space is. I know I pretend to be a neat freak, but the reality of it is: our house is definitely lacking in some key areas of cleanliness. I am very good at picking up "stuff" and putting things away, but it always leads to overstuffed closets and dust bunnies behind the furniture. My goals were: to weed out the closets, give the house a deep cleaning, and begin utilize our small space more effectively. Once that was done, I promised myself that I would keep the house generally picked up and choose one room a day for a good cleaning. That way the house was always looks semi-presentable and I wouldn't be killing myself having to clean the whole house in a day. Three months later......I have started to make good on my promise. And the best part is that we are having a yard sale to try to make some money before everything gets donated to Goodwill. We are going to sell some stuff on-line, but most it will be going directly to the yard sale. I have already decided to use whatever profits we make to buy ourselves a leather recliner for the living room. We really need a nice comfy chair that will hold up for a while. I keep telling myself that we need a bigger house with more space and then the problem would be solved. The fact of the matter is that we do need a bigger house, but it isn't happening for a while. So in the meantime, I need to make better use of the space we have and it starts by clearing out a whole lotta stuff that someone else can use. Honestly, as I go through the stuff, I kinda feel like a hoarder. I mean, who knew we had so much junk? I have cleaned Owen's room and gone through the closet in his room. It was literally spilling over with stuff and sometimes the door wouldn't even shut! I have also gone through most of the living room (VHS tapes, really?) and Jason has started working on the laundry room. Everything that is yard-sale-able has been priced and boxed up. We still have tons of work to do in the bedroom, kitchen, laundry room, and shed. It's starting to feel like we're making progress and that feels nice. Don't forget that one man's trash is another man's treasure and come see us on August 8th!

Nine Month Checkup

Yesterday we went to see Doctor Davis for Owen's nine month checkup. I was excited to find out what he weighed and because there were no shots involved. For someone who wants to be a nurse, I still hate seeing my baby get shots! The wait was long (lesson learned to keep our AM appointments) but the visit was quick. By the time Doctor D had arrived, Owen had already destroyed all the paper covering the checkup table. Anyone with nine month old can relate to them wanting to touch EVERYTHING and subsequently put it their mouth. Owen weighed in at 20 lbs 1.5 oz, is 27 3/4 inches long, and has a 46 cm head circumference. Basically, your average size kid with a huge noggin! Doctor Davis checked Owen out from head to foot and pronounced him healthy. I had a concern because he has been tugging at his ear lately, but apparently I am over reacting. We have been so fortunately because we haven't had to visit the doctor other than the well-check-ups. I am knocking on some serious wood as I type. We talked about crawling (or lack there of) and getting Owen some more time on the floor. Doctor Davis doesn't really consider crawling a milestone since most kids are crawling, creeping, standing, and walking at different intervals between now and about 15 months. He gave us the green light to start stage 3 foods as well as some soft table food. Since Owen has 4 teeth, we will begin to brush them twice a day. Hopefully we won't have to see the doctor until after Owen's first birthday party!

Cha Cha Changes

After much consideration, I have decided to make this a Beale family blog instead of letters I write to Owen. While I love and cherish the letters I wrote to my son, it seems time to switch it up and be able to write about all things Beale. Perhaps my loyal readers will enjoy keeping up with my thoughts on the whole family as we grow and expand. Some of you might recall another Beale Bits blog that is now defunct. I haven't quite decided the fate of that blog, so for now I am just stealing the name (it's OK since I thought of it) and giving this blog an update look and feel. My goal is to keep an more up-to-date journal of our little family's life experiences. Happy reading!

Sorry Mommy

Dear Owen,
You might be upset with me since I haven't written in a while. OK, more than a while. The sad part is, I don't really have a good excuse. We've just been busy. It's been a crazy summer and it's only half way over. I don't really have the energy right now to catch you up on all the details, but I am going to promise to write more often. I am going to *try* a daily update, until I can get back in the swing of things.
I will write soon and I love you,
Mom

Mothers Day Weekend

Dear Owen,
Last weekend we went to Chicago to surprise Grandma for Mothers Day. It. was. awesome. She was totally shocked and I have the video to prove it. On Friday morning, your Daddy took us to the airport and we headed up north. Lucky for us, my friend Ginny and her Mom were on the plane with us to Philadelphia! All of us had to change planes there, so it worked out great. They were such a huge help since you travel with a lot of gear and it's hard for one person to navigate. Your Great Aunt Diane picked us up from the airport and we headed home. My original idea was to leave you in a basket on your Grandma's doorstep, ring the bell, and run away. But we decided to surprise her half way on her walk to Aunt Diane's house for dinner. See below:



After she got over the initial shock, we had a blast spending weekend together. You had your first haircut, opened Mothers Day presents with Grandma, and were generally spoiled rotten for almost a week. Here are a few snapshots from the weekend.

Post Haircut:

Some of us are really happy, Some are not:

Beefcake:

Laying around:Helping open cards:

Hopefully we can make this an annual tradition for Mothers Day Weekend. I love you!

Mom